Module 1: Vocabulary Instruction in
CBI
Vocabulary is central to teaching and learning a language. Without sufficient vocabulary,
language learners cannot express themselves and understand others. The development of
vocabulary plays a crucial role for students of content-based instruction, as vocabulary
development directly impacts their academic achievement by meeting both content and
language learning objectives. CBI students need to learn general English vocabulary for
communication, and they must also learn terms that are specific to the content areas they are
studying (Echevarría, Vogt & Short, 2016).
Learning new vocabulary requires some memorization, and learners must also be able to use
their newly memorized words in communicative ways in the correct contexts. In order to achieve
this balance, CBI teaching must be supported by strategies and activities that actively involve
the participants and have the following characteristics:
1. Repetitive
2. Hands-on
3. Progress from simple to complex
4. Equally focused on all the skills of language development (listening, speaking, reading,
writing)
Repetition
In order to commit new words to long-term memory, a learner must be exposed to several
repetitions of the word (Criado, 2009; Wojcik, 2013). The more times a person is exposed to a
word, the more likely and quicker he or she will be to reproduce the word on demand. This is
especially true if exposures to words are spaced apart in time (Criado, 2009; Nation, 2013;
Kornmeier et al., 2014). Another reason why vocabulary learning requires several different
encounters with each word is because there are many layers of information that one must learn
in order to truly know a word: “There are numerous things to know about a word, namely its
form (spoken, written, and its component affixes and stem), its meaning (underlying concept,
particular instantiations, and associations), and its use (collocations, grammatical patterns, and
constraints on its use)” (Nation, 2013, p. 682).
Hands-on
"second grade writing class" (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. by woodleywonderworks via Flickr is licensed
under CC BY 2.0 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
How many times have we complained that in most of our science laboratory sessions, we were
never allowed to touch the chemicals or only observed the teacher mixing the chemicals?
Similar to the way this practice impacted our abilities to conduct an experiment and understand
the concept, when learners are not given an opportunity to play or experiment with the
language, they do not develop the competency to use the language in multiple contexts.
Simple to complex
Repetition is essential, but repeating the same activity multiple times will not continue
contributing to vocabulary building, because after some time, it will become predictable. To
make sure that activities promote learning while being engaging, learners must be exposed to
various tasks that are challenging for them. When learners are first learning a word, recalling the
word requires significant mental effort. Therefore, the tasks they do with the words should be
simple at this stage. As the learner becomes more and more familiar with a word, recognizing
and producing the word represent less and less cognitive load. At this stage, the learner is able
to perform more complex tasks while using the new vocabulary.
Equally focused on all four skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing
Given their primarily academic nature, CBI activities are frequently dominated by reading and
writing tasks, with little listening and speaking practice. This results in handicapping the CBI
students and leaving them unprepared to use the L2 in day-to-day communicative activities
such as watching a movie or carrying on a casual conversation on the street. Hence, while
planning lessons and activities, we need to make sure that we are focusing equally on all four
skills.
Conclusion
To summarize, learning happens efficiently in an environment where the participants are given
the opportunity to participate and experience things. Thus, activities must not be isolated or
happen just once in the classroom. Vocabulary building activities must be brought into the daily
routine, and they should increase in complexity over time and provide ample practice not only in
reading and writing, but in speaking and listening too.
Module 1: Vocabulary-building
Activity Examples
As CBI teachers, you need to provide your learners with numerous exposures to new
vocabulary in meaningful and contextualized ways. Yes, flashcards are useful, but they are not
enough. Students need to encounter new vocabulary in a variety of meaningful settings and
activities. In this text we will present several vocabulary building activities that have shown
success in a variety of class contexts.
1. Word Wall
During a lesson, key content vocabulary are highlighted by the teacher and written down in
alphabetical order on the word wall, which is usually a large sheet of paper pasted on the
wall. Word walls serve as an effective teaching tool to display the key terms for each theme
or unit and to revisit them as required (Echevarría, Vogt, & Short, 2016).
Usually, teachers maintain a single word wall and change it when needed or when they
move to a different theme or topic. A Word Wall can also act as a useful tool to involve
students and give them the authority to decide which words are no longer needed and
should be removed to make space for the new words (Echevarría, Vogt, & Short, 2016).
"Word Wall in Mr. Deeters Class" (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. by Nicole Yeary via Flickr is licensed
under
CC BY 2.0 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
2. Word Cloud
A word cloud is similar to a word wall except that instead of arranging the words in
alphabetical order, they are arranged randomly. Word clouds can be used as an effective
brainstorming tool in the classroom. To make classroom activities hands-on and sessions
playful, before starting a lesson, teachers can ask students to think of words associated with
the concept they are going to discuss. As the students are brainstorming words, the
teachers can type those words into the word cloud maker and create a word cloud in front of
them. The word cloud created can be used as a tool to track students’ learning, as the
teacher can use it to make a comparison of what students knew before and how much they
have learned during the lesson.
"Word
cloud" by Gina Asalon is licensed under CC BY 4.0 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
Various websites offer to instantly make word clouds. Some examples are:
https://www.wordclouds.com/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
http://www.wordle.net/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
https://worditout.com/word-cloud/create (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
https://wordart.com/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
3. Personal Dictionary
While it is important to engage students in group work, it is equally important for students to
direct their own learning and sometimes focus on the words that are important to them at
their stage of acquisition (Nation, 2013). To prepare a personal dictionary, students read a
text under their teacher’s guidance, in pairs or in small groups, and list down the new words
that they encounter in their notebooks (Echevarría, Vogt, & Short, 2016). The lists can take
multiple forms, including a word cloud.
In order to promote both vocabulary building and content-learning, teachers can further
discuss these words in small groups to provide a relevant context and more
clarity (Echevarría, Vogt, & Short, 2016). If supported by word walls and word clouds, a
personal dictionary can help students encounter words the many multiple times that they
need to encounter them in order to learn the words deeply.
4. Adopt a Word
Adopt a word is an activity that can be carried out throughout the year and across various
subject areas. Students choose a word and give a short presentation on that word based on
a template provided. They paste their sheet on the wall or board. For each subject area, this
template can be customized. Although this is an individual activity, it promotes group
learning in that students get to learn new words from each other by looking at those words
every day on the wall. The following "Frayer Model" is an example of how a student could
present a word visually (Thrush, et al., 2018).
"Frayer model" by Thrush, Dalle, & Thevenot (2018) is licensed under CC0 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
5. Concept Map
A concept map is a type of a graphic organizer used to illustrate the relationship between
various concepts and ideas. It helps students organize their understanding of the concept or
topic. Starting with a main idea or concept, it branches out to depict how that main idea is
broken down into specific topics.
Concept maps look simple but they are a great tool to discuss complex concepts. They are
not limited to language learning but are used widely across all ages and grades in other
content areas like math, science, and social sciences (Echevarría, Vogt, & Short, 2016).
"concept_map_lrg" (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. by jean-louis Zimmermann via Flickr is licensed under
CC BY 2.0 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
These websites can be used to create concept maps in the classroom:
https://www.canva.com/graphs/concept-maps/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an
external site.
https://creately.com/concept-map-maker (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
https://www.mindmup.com/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
6. Role Play
Role plays are one of the ways to transition the use of the target language to other subject
areas and real-world situations. By taking on different personalities, students learn to accept
multiple perspectives. Role-plays can vary on the level of authority given to the participants.
This can range from the provision of a script and all the resources by the teacher, to the
creation of everything by the participants. More freedom to participants leads to the creation
of a non-threatening environment that encourages them to overcome their shyness, and
communicate more in the target language, and learn the content (Stocker, 2008).
7. Infographics
Infographics are visual representations of information, but unlike concept maps, they include
data, icons, images, and longer texts. Being attractive and eye-catching, infographics
provide the relevant information quickly and clearly and thus result in improving cognition by
enhancing our visual ability to look for patterns (Vanichvasin, 2014).
Infographics can be used by teachers as a follow-up task at the end of the topic or unit to
allow students to demonstrate their understanding of the concept. Exposure to infographics
not only improves visual recognition skills but can also enhance critical thinking abilities and
lead to effective communication among students (Vanichvasin, 2014; Kibar & Akkoyunlu,
2014).
"USDA Farm to School Census Infographic" (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. by US Department of
Agriculture
via Flickr is licensed under CC BY 2.0 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
To create infographics, following websites can be used:
https://www.canva.com/create/infographics/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external
site.
https://piktochart.com/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
https://venngage.com/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
https://infogram.com/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
8. Comic Strips
Cartoons can be a powerful teaching tool, as they can present complex texts in a few
images that lead to better comprehension and retention. Being dominated by images and
having fewer sentences, it gives students more opportunities to be creative and experiment
with the language and the presentation of information, for example, by using superheroes to
teach about history or societal issues. Alternatively, teachers can also use comic strips to let
students fill in the speech bubbles based on the pictures, and they can create their own
stories.
The use of comic strips serves as an effective learning tool for both mainstream and non-
mainstream students. For example, it can help children with autism learn about different
kinds of social behaviors, understanding and reading emotions based on faces of various
characters selected for the cartoons (Zimmerman, 2018).
"Mickey Mouse Comic Strip" (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. by KiJeon Nam via Flickr is licensed under CC
BY 2.0 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
These sites allow you to make your own comic strip:
www.bitstrips.com/create/comic (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
https://www.canva.com/create/comic-strips/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external
site.
http://stripgenerator.com/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
https://www.pixton.com/?welcome&utm_expid=6716946-13.3rSf8rXOSA-aWvFp-uNLtA.1 (L
inks to an external site.)Links to an external site.
http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
9. CSI (Color-Symbol-Image)
This activity is used widely as an activity for reflection. Students make a note of something
that they find interesting or useful while listening, reading, or writing. When finished, they
make a note of three things that stood out for them. For one of these, they select a color, for
another one, they select a symbol, and for the other one they select an image that they think
best describes or captures the essence of the idea (Harvard, 2007).
Later, with a partner or a small group of 3-5 participants, they share why they chose that
color, symbol and image. This activity is not just limited to early grades but can be used in
middle to high school too, to make the students’ thinking visible (Harvard, 2007).
